Fall 2016 Curriculum Vitae Robert Burns Stepto Professor of African American Studies, American Studies and English Yale University Yale Address: Box 208212, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8212. Tel.(203) 432-1170,2268. Fax. (203) 432-2102. Office: rm. 404, 81 Wall Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Email: [email protected] Education: Ph. D., English and American Literature, Stanford University, 1974 (Advisor in English Literature: Ian Watt; Advisor in American Literature: David Levin) M.A., English Literature, Stanford University, 1968 B. A., Trinity College, Hartford, 1966 (cum laude, Honors in English) University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, 1951-1962 Fellowships: Yale Senior Faculty Fellowship, 1981-82 NEH Research Fellowship, 1981-82 Morse Fellowship (Yale), 1977-78 1900 Fund Research Grants (Williams), 1972, 1973 Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (used at Stanford), 1966-67 Recent Lectures, Talks: Inauguration of Meghan Hughes (Yale ’95) as President of Community College of Rhode Island (September 2016); Panelist on Immersive Learning, Middlebury College (July 2016); Moderator, Colloquium on The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict, Yale (March 2016); Presenter, “Bearden and Lawrence: Migrations,” Columbia University (February. 2015); Robert Hayden Centennial Celebration (AFAM/YUAG, December, 2013); Yale English 127 Plenary Lecture (on Ellison’s Invisible Man; October 2013); Teaching Across the Arts Panel, Bread Loaf School of English (July 2013); Martin Luther King, Jr., January 2013 holiday presentation, Congregation B’nai Jacob, Woodbridge; International Institute, Madrid, lecture sponsored by the Yale Club of Madrid (March, 2012); Complutense University, Madrid, lecture sponsored by the US Embassy, Madrid (March. 2012); Trinity College Alumni Association Black History Month Lecture (February, 2012, New York City); Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (February 2012); Reading, Calhoun College Fellows Meeting (February, 2012); Yale Art Gallery presentation, “Embodied: Black Identities in American Art,” (April 2011); Peters Rushton Lecture in American Literature, U of Virginia (March 2011); delivered three W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures, Harvard (April 2009); Abernathy Lecture in American Literature, Middlebury (April 2009); read from “Greyhound Kind of Mood,” African American History and Memory Conference, Yale (April 2009); “John Brown in the Art of Thomas Hovenden, Jacob Lawrence, and Horace Pippin,” Gilder Lehrman Conference on John Brown, Yale (October 2009). Recent Publications: with David Blight, Foreword to Caleb Smith, ed., The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict (Random House, 2016). Reviewed Kimberly Hartnett’s Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights, Washington Post, June 26, 2015. Ed.with Jennifer Rae Greeson, Norton Critical Edition of Charles Chesnutt’s Conjure Stories (New York: Norton, 2012). Introduction by Robert B. Stepto (pp. vii-xxvii). A Home Elsewhere: Reading African American Classics in the Age of Obama (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010). This volume includes my 2009 Du Bois lectures at Harvard. Recent Interviews: NPR/All Things Considered (February 2016), about the Caleb Smith book cited above. US Embassy (Madrid, 3/2012); Trinity College Reporter (Winter 2012); Issues in Higher Education (IHE) with Serena Golden, 3/2010) Publication Awards: Notable American Essay of 2001 and Pushcart Prize nomination for “Greyhound Kind of Mood,” New England Review 22:1; Notable American Essay of 1997 for "Hyde Park," Callaloo 20:1; Notable American Essay of 1996 for "Black Piano," Callaloo 19:1; Notable American Essay of 1995 for "Woodlawn," New England Review 17:1 Other Awards: Trinity College: 175th Anniversary Alumni Award, 1999; Alumni Medal for Excellence, 1986 Bread Loaf School of English: Frank and Eleanor Griffiths Chair Professor of English, 2007; Robert Frost Chair Professor of English, 1995 Teaching Experience-Full Time: At Yale since 1974 in African American Studies, American Studies, and English; full Professor since 1984. At Williams College, 1971-74, as Assistant Professor of English and American Civilization. Teaching-Special Assignments: Bread Loaf School of English, Summers, 1990-2016; Interim Director at Bread Loaf, Vermont, 1995-2000, 2006 School of Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth, Summer, 1988 Council for the Humanities, Princeton, Spring, 1988 Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute Seminars, 1985, 1988, 1991 NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers, Yale, 1981 Director, MLA/NEH Summer Seminar on Afro-American Literature, Yale, 1977 Yale Administrative Experience: African American Studies, Chair, 2005-08, Acting Chair, spring 2000, DGS, 22 semesters during 1978-99 & 2013-14, DUS, 1974-77; American Studies, Acting Chair, fall 1991, Acting DGS, spring 1991 & fall 1996; Chair, Theater Studies Advisory Committee, 2001-04 Pertinent Committee Work at Yale and in Yale College: Advisor, Black Pulp! Exhibition, Yale School of Art, Fall 2014 & 2015 Chair, Calhoun College Master Advisory Committee, Spring 2014 Eli Whitney Student Advisory Committee, Yale College, 2009-10 Faculty Advisory Committee for Beinecke Manuscript & Rare Book Library, 2005-- Search Committee for an Associate Dean of Yale College, 2006-07 Chair, Wrexham Prize, Yale College, 2000 Morse Fellowship Selection Committee, 1998, 1999 Yale College Executive Committee, most years, 1979-93, Factfinder, 1992-93, Chair of the Committee, four semesters, 1989-90 Advisory Committee, Yale College Admissions and Financial Aid, 1995-present Chair, Minority Advisory Council, 1982-84, 1993-94 Co-Chair, Yale College Mellon and Bouchet Fellowships, 1992-2000 Faculty Chair, Yale Graduate School Compton Fellowships, 1980-84 Co-Director, Yale College Pre-Registration Program for Minority Freshmen, 1979, 1983, 1986 Burke Marshall Committee on Minority Faculty Frank Turner Committee on the Executive Committee Adair Committee on Free Speech University Committee on Restructuring in the Arts and Sciences Pertinent Work in Professional Organizations: In the American Studies Association, program committee, 1976-77, 1987-88; nominating committee, 1978; nominated for President, 1995; John Hope Franklin Prize committee, 1997-98 Chair, MLA Commission on the Literatures and Languages of America, 1977- 78 & fall 1978 Journal and Press Board Memberships: Callaloo, Associate Editor, 1984-88, Contributing Editor, 1989 - 2010 University of Chicago Press, Chicago Visions and Revisions Editorial Board, since 2003 Cambridge University Press Studies in American Literature and Culture, 1990-98 American Quarterly, 1991-94 American Literature, 1987-88 Consultantships-Evaluation of Manuscripts: manuscripts have been read for the following university presses --Alabama, Cambridge, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oxford, Rutgers, Wesleyan, Virginia, Yale (some of these, many evaluations) Consultantships-Evaluation of Programs and Grants: American Writers Museum Project, 2010- (National Advisory Council for the Project since 12/2011) Smithsonian: Planning Committee, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, 2007 New York Public Library: Holte Prize, 1985-86 Phelps-Stokes Fund, 1985 Ford Foundation: Chair, Literature and Language Panel, Post-Doctoral Fellowships, 1983, 1984 Rockefeller Foundation: Panelist, Humanities Fellowships, 1982, 1984 NEA service: Panelist, Poetry Awards, 1979 NEH Service: outside evaluator for "Inventing America," a seminar for all freshmen at Lewis and Clark College, Spring 1994, Fall 1996; Summer Grants, 1984; State Humanities Programs, 1983; Special Programs, 1980-81; Summer Seminars for the Professions, 1980; Connecticut Humanities Council, 1980-82. Consultantships – Review of Academic Departments: External Review Boards for Departments of English: Hunter College, CUNY (chair of the review, 2000), Rice Univ. (2000), Trinity College, Hartford (1976) External Review Boards for African American Studies: Northwestern (1991), Indiana (1985), Simmons College (1984), UNC Greensboro (1983), Illinois, Chicago (1981), Maryland, College Park (1979) Consultantships - Boards of Trustees: Board of Trustees, Trinity College, 1982-92; Board of Fellows, Trinity College, 1980-82 Committee of Trustees, Hopkins School (New Haven), 1991-94 Lectures: Bowdoin, Bread Loaf, Brown, Bryn Mawr, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Chicago, Colby, Columbia, Eastern CT State, Emory, Harvard, Haverford, Howard, Howard Divinity, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Miami (OH), Middlebury, Minnesota, Mississippi, National Research Council, UNC Greensboro, NYU, Northwestern, Ohio State, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Rutgers, Sacred Heart (CT), Spelman, Stanford, Trinity (CT), Tufts, Vermont, Virginia, Washington (MO), Wesleyan (CT), Western CT State, Wheelock, Williams (I have lectured at many of these institutions more than once) Abroad: the Universities of Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus (Denmark); Firenze and Perugia (Italy); Oslo and Trondheim (Norway); Bonn, Frankfurt, Munich (Germany); Complutense (Spain) Papers, Comments, Workshops: MLA, ASA, OAH meetings; symposia at Brown, Georgetown, Haverford, Hofstra, Long Wharf Theater, New Haven Historical Society, New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence; Penn Center- St. Helena, Poetry Center- 92nd St. Y, Rutgers, Rutgers-Newark, Shubert Theater, So. CT Library Council, Trinity, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale, Yale Art Gallery, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, Yale Repertory Theater, Yale Visiting Scholar Program Abroad: American Studies symposia at Bonn and